Hard wiring or optical circuitry (e.g., fiber strands) is used to interconnect printed circuit boards (PCBs) in electronic devices such as personal computers, server systems, displays, or any other electronic device that includes multiple PCBs or electronic components. Such PCBs may include network adaptor cards, hard drive controllers, power supplies, modems, or any other electronic circuit that is located on a PCB or other physical medium. Typically, wire leads, PCB traces, cables, connectors, and the like provide the electrical interfaces between such PCBs. For example, many adapter cards are physically and electrically connected to a computer system motherboard by a connector such as a peripheral component interface (PCI) connector, compact PCI (CPCI) connector, and the like.
Despite the usefulness of hardwiring the circuitry of the various components together, the current limitation of only having a physical connection between these circuits is not without flaws. For example, if a catastrophic event occurs to a primary wired/optical path, the catastrophic event could also disrupt a secondary or backup circuit path, since such redundant circuit path is dependant on the same physical type media (e.g., cables, wires, optical strands, and the like).
In addition, many organizations (e.g., manufacturers, licensees, endusers, and the like) desire to implement various levels of security for their electronic systems. One such desirable security level includes the prohibition against installing of unauthorized PCB and/or modular components in an electronic device. However, since the components of the electronic systems are only hardwired and/or optically connected together, such components could easily be added or removed without authorization to perform some unauthorized function not intended by the organization.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for an alternate method and apparatus for providing redundancy, diagnostics, and authentication of the PCBs and modular circuits.